PAPER ON: RELIGIOUS CONFLCITS BETWEEN
ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST AFRICA
REGION
12-0737 JOSEPH MUNGAI
DAYSTAR UNIVERSITY
COURSE CODE: ENG112D
ADVANCED WRITING
PESENTED TO: DR. REGINA GACHARI
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGES
AND PERFORMING ARTS
DEPERTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND
LANGUAGES
25TH November, 2013.
ATHI RIVER
THESIS
There are several causes for religious
conflicts between Christianity and Islam in the East Africa region.
THESIS STATEMENT
The causes of religious conflicts
between Christianity and Islam in the East Africa region include social,
political and economic factors.
Subject: religion
Topic: Causes of conflict between
Christianity and Islam in the east Africa region.
Thesis: There are several causes of
conflict in the East Africa region.
Thesis statement: The causes of
conflict between Christianity and Islam in the east Africa region include political,
economic and social factors.
Outline.
I.
Introduction
A. Thesis
B. Thesis statement
II.
Causes
of the Christianity and Islam conflict
A. Political
1. Government violating the religious
freedom of its citizens
2. Government officials creating
propagandas
B. Economic
1. People fighting for natural resources
i.e., water, oil.
C. Social
1. Cultural discrimination.
2. Ethnic clashes.
3. Beliefs
III.
Role
of the church.
A. To enhance social virtues
B. To promote social solidarity
C. To act as an agent of socialization
and social control.
D. To influence the economy
E. To influence political systems in a
positive way
F. To strengthen self-confidence.
IV.
Effects
of the conflict between Christianity and Islam in the eastern African region.
A. Death
B. Tension
C. Fewer rights, for the minority.
V.
Strategies
of minimizing the conflict between Christianity and Islam in the east Africa
region.
1. To hold religious dialogues.
2. Intermarriage between the two faiths.
3. Minimize conflict between religious
ideologies.
VI.
Conclusion
VII.
References
Barbalet (2011) indicates that since
beginning of time, mankind has been caught up in countless conflicts. Some
conflicts arise as a result of scarcity of resources or over territory. Other
conflicts are as a result of difference between people, groups or nations. African
conflicts are caused by a variety of factors such as ethnicity, race, resources
and religion. For the purpose of this paper, the main focus will be on causes
of religious conflicts between the two faiths (Christianity and Islam) in the
East Africa region.
Edith & Pye (2012) suggest that, conflict
develops from objective factors, subjective factors, and trigger factors. Objective
factors are factors such as fighting for control over territory resources.
Subjective factors can be factors like race, ethnicity, beliefs or even language. Trigger factors maybe immediate or act as triggers, these events may include
political assassination, new enforced discriminatory policies, electoral fraud,
or manifested in long standing political and social-economic structure of society.
A religious conflict also means
religious intolerance against another’s religious beliefs or practices. Objective
factors in relation to the context; these are the objects that are causing the
conflicts, objects like resources. Subjective factors are factors that cause
one to end up in a conflict, factors like, race and ethnicity. Trigger factors,
these are the factors which stimulate or start up a conflict between two or more
people; it may be due to issues like political assassinations and the
social-economic structure of the society.
The purpose of this research is to
examine the causes of religious conflicts between Christianity and Islam in the
East Africa region which include political, social and economic factors. The
role of religion has been studied widely, but not enough is written about the
religious conflicts in East Africa. This research will contribute to the
understanding of religious based conflicts in East Africa and as a result can
aid in conflict resolution on the Region.
The causes of religious conflict
between Christianity and Islam in East Africa region include social, political
and economic factors. Social factors include
ethnicity for instance cultural discrimination. Political factors include both
political leaders and religious leaders using ideologies to confuse people thus
causing conflicts. Economic factor, this involves people fighting over, land,
oil, and water among other things.
The religious conflict between the
two faiths (Christianity and Islam ) in the east Africa region is cause by the three factors discussed
earlier . Starting with the political factor
, there has been a lot of propaganda between the political leaders among
the region . The propagandas have a big impact on the conflict, for instance.
Since Kenya deployed its troops into Somali in response to the security threat
posed by the Al-shabaab militants , there have been a number of reprisal attacks on Kenyan soil by both local
Al-shabaab sympathizers and militants deployed from Somalia itself . Most of
these attacks have targeted churches , thus creating the impression that Muslims
have waged war against Christians . The worst case was the attack on two
churches in Garissa where at least 17
worshippers were killed under a hail of machine gunfire as they attended Sunday
mass. All this also stems not only from political leaders but also from the
propaganda spread by Al-shabaab media strategists to the effect that the Kenyan
troops are in a Christian force that has invaded a Muslim country (Hassan 2012).
The Sudan government has also been exploiting the citizens, through violating
the religious rights. The Sudan government uses religion to bring conflict
between the two faiths for their own selfish reasons.
The other aspect influencing the
cause of conflict in the East African region includes the social factor . Under
social factors there are ethnic clashes, discrimination and different beliefs
. The Sudanese government has rejected
and discriminated against the minority which was the Southerners, they were
less educated and there was virtually an absence of any form of transportation
. This increased the gap between the two geographic regions thus conflicts
arising between the difference in religion. The Arabs from the Northern part
discriminated the southerners because of their skin color; they considered them
not to be humans. The Southerners were treated as slaves and earned minimum
wages or even at times they wouldn’t get paid. This caused rivalry between the regions.
Thus raising a conflict.
The other aspect is economic; the
economic aspect has played a major role in the cause of conflict among the
Sudanese people. The 1993 population census in Sudan estimated that 71 percent
of the Sudanese population was living in the rural areas. These people have to
fight for the skimpy natural resources that are available in the rural areas of
Sudan. Most of those people who live in the rural depend on agriculture for
their survival and livestock keeping. This means they have to move from place
to place looking for food and water hence crossing other people’s territories.
This economic factor also leads to rise of conflicts; this is because most of
the pastoralists and farmers were the southerners and not Arabs. It is argued
that the Sudanese government has been manipulating ethnic and religious
differences to get more oil resource in Sudan . The money the government gets
from the mines use it to fund people to continue fighting each other (Wills,
2003).
Despite all these causes of conflicts
the church still has a role to play in East Africa region . The roles include
providing mental peace through encouraging one to face the problems that may occur
in future, also helps one to know how to act in such situations Religion also
helps to enhance social virtues which include love, unity, and honesty among
many others. This virtues help to control social behavior of the people, people
are able to act responsibly without any supervision.
The church also helps in promoting
social solidarity among the people, social solidarity also incorporates a
peaceful society where people care about each other. People are able to come
together and try to find some of the solutions towards ending the conflicts
between this two faith (Christianity and Islam). The other roles include,
religion acting as an agent of socialization .People are able to come together
despite of their religious background and socialize hence creating strong bond
among one another. This can lead to been ones brother’s keeper. This would help
reduce the conflict between the two faiths. People will view each other and
friends and not enemies.
Social control, this is also an important
aspect in a way it helps to govern our behavior through social norms and values;
one will be able to evaluate his actions. If they will hurt the other person or
not, one is able to able to know this through the norms and values. If the
church can effectively influence the aspect of social control on people, it can
also influence the economy. Through encouraging people to find legal means of
production with anyone getting hurt .
The church also helps to influence political
systems in a positive way. The religious leaders should take a religious oath. This
oath will help the leaders to take their roles seriously. Authority comes from
God and they should respect that and do justice to the people they are serving.
The church also helps to strengthen
self-confidence. Lack of self-confidence
leads to certain behaviors, like fighting for identity. One struggles to be
recognized because he/she lacks self-confidence and in the process they end up
hurting other people. The church helps in building up confidence in such people
in order to prevent them from hurting other people.
The conflict between Christianity and
Islam also has its own effects on the region. The effects include death for instance
the death of Muslim Cleric Sheik Aboud Rogo’s death lead to angry protests by
Muslim youth in Mombasa who responded by attacking security officers and
Christian worship centers. A lot of properties were destroyed, people were
injured and of course there were some people who had other motives of stealing
as the conflict was going on. The death of this people also brings down the
economy of the country; a lot of money is used to cater for their burial and to
repair the public facilities that have been ruined as a result of the conflict.
The conflict also stirs tension; the tension
is caused by need of identity. National identity has always played an important
role in Sudan. People are willing to go as far as becoming Mtyrs for the sake
of the religion to fight for their identity group hence causing tension. The southerners
from Sudan have been misused by the Northerners; they were treated as slaves
for decades. This raised the conflict
between them and the northerners. They also wanted some recognition and to be
treated fairly. Hassan,
O. N. (2012). Lastly on the effects we
have the minority being deprived of their rights. For example when there was a grenade attack
in east Leigh, the Christian youths of the area turned against the minority
group which was the Islam and started beating them up and burning their shops
among other properties. This brought fear and the minority group feared to even
walk around freely because of tension.
Strategies of minimizing the conflict
between Christianity and Islam in the East Africa region having religious
dialogues . Christians to accept the absolute right of Muslims to believe as
they do , just as Muslims accept the absolute right of Christians as they do .
Religious people should not aggressively seek to convert members of other faiths
. Intermarriages should be encouraged between the two faiths; this would help
in lessening the conflict. People of the two faiths would be united through
kinship. Finally the religious leaders and political leaders should not use
their ideologies to worsen the conflict between the two faiths instead they
should be in the fore front in helping to reduce the conflict. The leaders
should always remember that authority comes from God and respect that.
In conclusion, the region has been
plagued with religious conflict between Christianity and Islam for many
centuries. The conflict has been caused by the differences we mentioned earlier
and discussed. Religion has played a big role in trying to lessen the conflict
between these two faiths. The blood of many Africans has been spilled as a
result of this conflict. In many cases those who take part in the war don’t
benefit at all, but for the leaders who incite the people benefit more from the
resources they acquire after the war. Religion has been used as a way to classify
a large part of the population as lesser people and nobody wants to feel as if
they are less valuable than anyone else. It’s the human nature to fight and
defend for what they like .The only way to stop the religious conflicts between
the two faiths is for everyone to compromise with each other and accept each
other just as we are, and no one should accept to be manipulated by the leaders
just for the own benefits, lastly there should be some policies governing the region.
If anyone violates the polices should be dealt with accordingly no matter what
position you have in the society. This will make it easier to solve such
problems and make the region a peaceful place. We will also serve as an example
to other countries facing the same problems; this will give them hope to see
tomorrow . Tjaart, B. (N.D).
Reference list
Barbalet, J. (2011) .Key issues in modern sociology: Religion
and the state. London. New Anthem
press.
Edith, France, Marshall & Pye. (2012). Religion and reason: religious harmony: problems, practices and
education. New York .Walter de Gruyter.
Hassan, O. N. (2013). Kenya: Clerics’ killings fuel religious conflict.
Mpanyane, T. (2009). Conflict in Africa: Entering
the age of hope. Kenya. Institute
for security.
Tjaart, B. (2012). The
role of religion in African conflicts: the
cases of Nigeria and Sudan.
Wills, J.
(2003). Religion in the Sudan: A
review article. Journal of religion in
Africa, vol. 33, pg. 328.
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